More Cake Class!

I just finished week 3 of my 4 week cake class. Alot to learn in a small time frame, only 2 hours per week for 4 weeks.

As a recap: for week one we did no hands on work but instead learned how to make the Wilton Buttercream icing (which has no butter, or cream but is instead made with shortening) and how to crumb coat and flat ice a cake. I apparently only learned some of that information since I completely missed that I should be using a thin consistency icing to ice my cake, not the medium consistency I did use, which kept trying to peel off my cake! I think I can remember this for next week's cake. Hopefully.

On week two we learned stars, zig zags, the base of the Wilton rose and writing. All items that would let us create a character cake, or really any type of cake.

This week had even more information in it: shells, dots, more flowers, more of the rose (which I just could not seem to get and have to practice, practice, practice for next week!), ending with color stripping so that we could make multi-colored clowns. I think I got a little carried away with my red color as the color ended up leeching through the bag onto my hands but look at the vibrant colors of my clowns!

I mentioned something to the instructor last night- Wilton, or Michael's, really needs to add some more information to their class description and student kit. When you sign up you are told the cost of the class, plus supplies, which you can purchase as a simple box with a few supplies for $24.99. In it you will get a bag, a few disposable bags, your rose nail, pallet knife, tips, brush, and practice board. What you don't learn is that you will need to buy meringue powder, a mountain of icing sugar, shortening, flavoring, more disposable bags, either plastic or parchment. Not to mention 3 cakes. It adds up, it adds up very, very fast!

Good news is that for class 2 I will only need to make one cake, and it is for the last class. The student kit for that class includes the cake pans you would need to make them also. Of course it is recommended that you purchase a cannister of the color base powder, which will essentially let us make Royal icing, so again, more hidden costs.

Next week is the last class of this course. We will be finishing off our roses to decorate our final cake, as well as learning vines and bows. If my families schedule allows it, I will be moving right into course 2, though I suspect soccer will probably take priority and I won't get into the next class until September.